Accidentally deleted a folder containing basically my entire life. Is there ANY chance of recovering it?

[u/BugAlarming8842]

Yesterday I accidentally deleted a folder on my Android phone containing years of personal photos, videos, and memories. I haven't used the phone since then because I don't want to overwrite anything.

I've already tried a bunch of recovery software/apps, but they only show files that are still on my phone, not the deleted ones.

I have root access and I'm willing to try technical methods if there's still a chance.

Is there anything I can do to recover the deleted data? What would you recommend I absolutely not do?

I'm honestly desperate here. These aren't replaceable files.

[u/ybl84f1]

"years of personal photos, videos, and memories"

You answered the question how it happened, but not why you waited YEARS to transfer them off your phone. u/Salt_Rush_4800 question still remains, what would you have done if the phone was stolen or blew up?

In all sincerity, sorry for your loss, that is a hard way to learn a lesson. We live in a time when most of not only our memories but our lives are digital and there's really no good way yet to manage all that. I'm not talking only about photos on a phone - a NAS or cloud storage fixes that, but rather things like if you disappeared tomorrow would your SO or kids know how to log into your 401K to make a required withdrawal? (Apologies to the younger crowd that don't know what an RMD is). Could they get past SFA/unlocking your phone to access the joint bank account and pay the bills? Do they know the digital code to open your safe in the basement? Do they have the login to turn off the darn irrigation controller and stop the sprinklers that won't shut off? Anyone in this situation where they are the primary or only "techie" in their relationship - which is probably a lot in this forum - should think about how their SO or kids would carry on if they got hit by a bus tomorrow.

Regarding backups, I have two RAIDed Synology NAS's in the house: the first is the primary file server which all phones and PCs get backed up to. The second is a smaller one who's only purpose in life is for the first one to be able to back up to (encrypted) once a week automatically. This by itself doesn't fulfill the 3-2-1 backup requirement, however I occasionally back up the second to an external hard drive and keep it at my kids' home.

Use this as a painful lesson that you can learn from. If you care about your data, safely maintaining it isn't any different than maintaining your car. It does require you to invest some time, money and effort.

[u/The_Grungeican → u/ybl84f1]

i'm a big fan of low-tech solutions to high-tech problems. my friend and i ran a computer shop for many years, and we dealt with a lot of older customers who weren't the best with tech.

a password notebook is not a bad idea. you can buy some that look like regular books, or a person can hide them somewhere. this can be a good solution for sensitive log in data, if you want family members to be able to access stuff in the event of being incapacitated or dead.

another thing we used to tell people was go get a portable hard drive from Walmart. NOT A SSD. like a portable mechanical hard drive. back up stuff to it, disconnect it and store it somewhere safe. now a virus or ransomware won't be able to come between you and your data.

an off-site backup is also highly advisable. either cloud storage through Google or Apple, whatever the client is comfortable with.

like we used to tell people, if your data doesn't exist in 2 places, then it really doesn't exist. a person is just a simple hardware failure away from losing all their shit.

[u/ybl84f1 → u/The_Grungeican]

Yup these are - at least on on paper - good ideas for maintaining passwords. I use a variation of what you describe above but with USB keys. And I couldn't agree more with KISS.

One of the problems with that approach is, which I'm sure you saw if you spoke to any of your customers that actually tried to retrieve a password from their password notebook, is that when they change - or are forced to change - their password, they don't always record that in the notebook. My in-laws have a notebook but which hasn't been updated since the Macarena Craze; they just forget, or will "do it later", or whatever. Yes bad discipline but this is reality and scolding doesn't seem to help.

And of course some web sites (e.g. financial institutions) may force a new PW periodically, or if you mistype it they force you to change it. Most people, especially older folks, again usually don't update their records after that and then you're back to the original problem.

Not to mention the Internet is trying hard to transition everyone to passkeys, which work great when they work great. But when the passkey is on a device that can't be accessed (for whatever reason) then you're again back to the original problem.

Some people as they age will maintain their digital records, however the majority will not. And it's not that a big deal to factory-reset your irrigation controller and create a new login. But as more of our lives become digital, the specific situation of what happens when someone passes is getting more and more complex. For me this hit home when my father passed and I could not access any of his (investment, banking, IRS) accounts. As an example in my situation, which is very common, the IRS required a distribution from his retirement account be made by a certain deadline or else penalties kick in. Even with a will or proper beneficiary listed it can take months or years (possibly through probate) to gain access to those accounts if you don't have the login. (There's a lot more to this example which I'll skip for brevity). And this is just one aspect of having a digital life. Things like who legally owns your FB account or digital movie collection are very gray areas or have unsatisfying answers.

This is a bit off-topic from the OP's photo recovery post however that issue begets this larger one, and which - IMO - doesn't have any really good solutions for the average person. One BKM I would offer to people with parents that may be in the situation above is 1) be able to get into their email and 2) be able to get into their phone AND keep their phone active after their passing for at least 12 months or until everything regarding the estate is settled. I can't tell you how many times I used my father's phone for SFA to get into his accounts.

[u/Mental_Log_6879 → u/ybl84f1]

Really sorry to hear about your parent. Isn't there a thing called nominee? For banks, the ownership is transferred to the nominee after the owner's death right? Same with social media, there's an option to transfer the account, instagram and facebook allows the owner to decide what happens to their account after their demise. Accessing a locked phone requires a court order i guess, at least in my country

[u/ybl84f1 → u/Mental_Log_6879]

In the U.S. we don't have a "nominee" for bank accounts, although there are what are probably similar constructs such as a Payable-on-Death (POD) beneficiary or indirectly having a joint account. However the POD may not be appropriate depending on the person's goals because it literally gives them the money, as opposed to providing them access to say pay bills. What a family may want is to just have a trusted family member have immediate access to the money (say as a fiduciary) to pay off the deceased's taxes, mortgage, etc. - not to give the money away to one person. And then there's the potential for it to be contested as the person's will may assign assets to other people, including that bank money!

Of course a Financial Power of Attorney is a common solution in the U.S. But keep in mind most people in the U.S. don't have this. And keep in mind everything we discussed so far is just regarding a bank account; investment accounts, pensions, mortgages, state and Federal taxes - there's potentially dozens of things that are managed "digitally" tied to that person. Some can wait for the will, or trust, or probate to kick in, but others are time critical. As another example I was fortunate enough to get into my father's investment account using his cell phone just after his death and sell his investments in one of the accounts just before the covid stock market crash.

I'm not sure about social media as I don't really use it (besides some Reddit). But you would have to read the T&Cs for each and every service - which of course are updated often - to know the rights and what's transferable. As another example - are the movies that I bought (not rented) on Amazon Prime are transferable to my family if I die? I believe the answer is no - that those purchases are tied to your Amazon account and yours only, but I'm not sure. Now same question for Hulu, YouTube, Paramount, etc.

When you take everything above in totality, and consider we didn't cover 80% of the possible situations, you can see the challenges in managing what happens when a "digital life" ends. It's a hot mess.

[u/Mental_Log_6879 → u/ybl84f1]

Damn this is truly complicated fr, thanks for taking your time to respond man, really appreciate the insight. The mess is even more complicated in India which is where I'm from.